I have been a bit stuck this week - stuck in Santiago. It is my own fault as I decided to book a tour for Peru and Machu Picchu. That meant sending out lots of emails, waiting for replies, making decisions and more waiting. I should have done it all weeks ago.

Santiago is not a bad place to be stuck. It is a pleasant city, roomier and less cosmopolitan than Buenos Aries, more Spanish. There is the same shiny shoe obsession and lots of coffee shops, although in some of them there are no tables and chairs, you just stand round a high counter. The Chileans obviously love their ice cream, as these places abound, vying to produce the biggest most elaborate ones.

I had another attack of deja vu as I arrived on Sunday and everything was shut. My accommodation was in a lovely hostel with charming hosts, but it was too much to pay for a room with no windows and a dribble of a shower. So again I moved on next day to a place half the price, new and clean if somewhat soulless.

Monday I must have walked miles exploring the city. I walked up Cerro Santa Lucia, a huge rock in the middle of the city which gives lovely views over Santiago with the Andes in the background.

Tuesday was going to be bank and shopping day in a different area of the city. (Sadly I have managed to lose my sleeping bag somewhere in Argentina. I must have left it in one of the hotels before I went to Iguazu.) I ventured onto the underground pleasantly surprised at how quiet it was. The totally shuttered shopping centre made me check my little calendar to then realise it was May 1 - a holiday here too.

Instead, I went to the even bigger hill of San Cristobel which forms the Parque Metropolitano. A funicular takes you up almost vertically and you come down by cable car. At the very top is a huge statue of the virgin Mary, nearly as big as all the satellite masts that surround it.

Wednesday was doing all the things I meant to do Tuesday. I even managed to get a bit of a trim of my straggles in a hairdressers. Risky with no Spanish but it turned out OK. Thanks to Simon for the info on Buenos Aires and Paul on Santiago- I never managed to find the fish market or the restaurant he recommended.

Replies to my emails were now starting to come in and I had an offer from Exodus to go on a trip walking the Inca Trail. I agonised whether to do it. The aches in my legs after 3 days of walking round a flat city convinced me that maybe at this point I am just too tired. I think I would have gone for it a couple of months ago. I hope I do not regret the decision when I am back home and rested.

With only 4 weeks to go my thoughts inevitably begin to turn to home more often. I am looking forward to seeing my children (I am hoping to go and see Ben in Japan in the summer), all my friends, my lovely little house if it is still standing, my 2 cats and to sleeping in my own bed. The thing I have most craved is a pint of warm flat English beer - IPA to be exact. Someone line one up for me please. I am a little worried about how I will settle back down. My fear is almost that I will have grown but my life will not, that I will just slot back in and soon it will be as if this wonderful adventure never happened. Does that make sense?

Still, 4 weeks left to enjoy. I am fixed up now to join a Tucan tour. I have hardly spoken to anybody so far in South America so, despite what I said in Australia, it will be good to be in a group for a couple of weeks. I spent most of today arranging to fly up to the desert at San Pedro de Atacama (with a lot of help from the very patient Claudia at PassTours). I have been trying to work out how to then get to Lima on Monday, when the tour starts. Apparently there are buses but it all has to be booked from up there - rather a tight schedule but I am sure it will work out. Ever the optimist.

I thought I had better write this today as I do not know if they have the internet in the desert. This has been a bit of a rambling report and for once without any superlatives - a welcome rest perhaps!